Tag: july

Time for a little good news?

Posted on by News Desk

Picture the scene (we know you’ve all been there). You’re on the road. On the motorway, to be exact. It’s busy, but its okay. Things are moving. Then, all of a sudden, things start to look busier ahead. You start to slow. You see the familiar yellow signs of roadworks ahead. You groan to yourself. Roadworks for how long? 10 miles? You’ve got to be joking. You’ve places to go and people to see. This is not what you need. But, you do what you need to do, you slow down. Right down. (You’ve clocked the speed cameras there, you can’t afford to get 3 points on your license). And through you drive. Past the road cones, closing one lane… for seemingly nothing. There’re no crews, there’s no lorries, there’s no sign that anyone has done any work here at all. Or looks likely to. What was the point?

Agh! Infuriating, right?

Well, while there isn’t much we can say to make that better, the good news is that Highways England has announce that the typical speed limits imposed at the sites of those repairs is being increased from 50mph, to 60mph. This should lead to a time saving of somewhere between 8%-14%, meaning you will get to where you are going faster as a result. 

While Highways England are saying that this will not apply to all roadwork sites, you can expect to see the increase in many sites, especially those on large stretches of motorway

But of course, what they give with one hand, they take with another. In some areas of high traffic pollution, they are cutting speed limits, in a bid to minimise emissions from vehicles. While they are also looking for other ways to do so, that do not mean a cut in speeds, there are targets that they need to meet, which they have not found other solutions to, despite only using half of their allocated budget on discovering better ways to fight pollution. We hope that these are only temporary and that they can discover some measure that do not mean a reduction, in speed, which, by our logic, can only lead to more congestion as things slow down (otherwise why would they be increasing the roadworks limits)? 

But if the last few months have shown us anything, it’s that nothing makes sense any more, really. At least one thing is unchanged – that if you are on the hunt for the best van insurance deals around, you’re in the right place. 

Don’t Get Tired of Your Tyres

Posted on by News Desk

New rules are coming in to impact not just classic car and van owners, but might also apply to some of our van driving readers. From September, tyres aged ten years or older cannot be used on the front wheels of buses, coaches or lorries. If it is a minibus you’re driving, then you can’t use them at all. 

Also, if your steep mileage means you use re-treaded tyres a lot to save yourself a few quid, those days might be coming to an end sooner than you think. While not being banned outright, these will need to be clearly marked with their original date from the autumn. This is as a result of older tyres being more prone to corrosion which can have deadly consequences should they fail at high speeds.

This follows on from a report by Halfords late last year, which shows that up to four million vehicles across the UK are being driven with bald tyres. A huge 13% of drivers said they were aware that their tyres were not above the legal minimum tread depth. 

A massive 65% of people surveyed did not know the laws around maintaining a minimum tread, despite the fact that there are heavy fines if you are caught with your tyres below that level.

And, while we expect van drivers to know a little bit more than Joe Public about the rules of the road, we will bet our bottom dollar there’s a good few of you lot who don’t really know what’s what either. 

A tread depth of 1.6mm is the bare minimum for most vehicles, across three quarters of the face of the tyre. (Of course, you knew that, obviously). For LGVs, it’s 1mm. But let’s be honest – when did you last check yours?

Get pulled over for it and not only is there a £2,500 fine for each tyre below that minimum, but there is also three points on your license. Per tyre. Do the maths there – a set of dodgy tires could cost you £10k and 12 points. 

Ouch.

Not only is it a sensible precaution for your health, safety and your wallet, but of course its important for other road users too. Bald tyres can reduce the ability to brake and steer, especially in wet weather. 

And we’ll end this week with an ‘and finally….’ Of the bad news. If your tyres are below the legal tread depth and you are involved in an accident that could have been avoided had your tyres been road-legal? Yes, you guessed it, it could invalidate your van insurance too.

In the meantime, if your van insurance is due, while we can’t make sure your van is insurance worthy, we can point you in the direction of the best deals around.

The World Opens Up, but What Next?

Posted on by News Desk

So, the world is now pretty much out of lockdown and the roads back to pre-corona levels of traffic. And for those of you who are finding life a bit of a struggle financially, don’t spend too much time thinking about your van insurers.

Why do we say that? Well, because the news is that while the UK was locked down, the car and van insurance companies of the UK pocketed a massive £1.3 billion in savings, as a result of fewer vehicles on the road and fewer accidents.

Now, a few of them, such as LV and Admiral have given back a rebate to some, including to van drivers.

But an awful (In fact, all of them with the exception of the two above) have not. That is a lot of our money that they have pocketed, without so much of a “here, have a few quid back, mates, it’s only fair.”

We don’t know what can be done about it, but we’re just annoyed that there seems to be no recourse when so many people are struggling right now and when the regular people have clearly overpaid for services, it’s not right that they don’t get a refund. 

On the flip side though, we are seeing a huge leap in accidents involving van drivers being reported. We aren’t sure if this is largely to do with the fact that there were fewer cars on the road during lockdown, so comparatively the amount of van driver accidents is up, or if it’s more to do with the fact that there have been quieter roads, which have led to more stupid decisions being made.

Well. If nothing else, it probably helps balance out the van insurers not giving any rebates.

We are also still seeing increased pressure in some areas of the UK to make town centres pedestrian or cycle only. An unmitigated disaster for van driver and the businesses they serve. Let’s hope they die a death in the same way social distancing appears to be doing. How is it round by you? Here it’s like COVID never happened. It will be interesting to see if that second wave comes and if it does – then shouldn’t we be thinking of ways for van drivers to protect themselves to be able to carry on? We don’t know what the answers are, but maybe a van driver’s charter is in order….

Surges and Savings

Posted on by News Desk

As another big tranche of the work gets back to work this weekend, there is, inevitably, more traffic on the road than before. Every van driver’s nightmare. What is worse is that many of these drivers are going to be out and about at rush hours, because they are choosing to drive, rather than commute using public transport. In fact, some reports are suggesting that there may even be twice as many using their cars to commute than there were pre-covid.

And as if dealing with more traffic isn’t bad enough, we are still waiting to see if any of the powers who be do anything about the fact that the massive savings that car and van insurers made during lockdown have not been passed on to us, the humble drivers who all do our bit to follow the law with a good and valid car or van insurance policy. 

Car and van insurance for new customers has gone down in that time, but if you haven’t renewed recently, you’re unlikely to be one of the few whose insurers have refunded them some of the savings they have made or to have seen any savings being passed on to you. 

It also looks like the van industry is getting back on its feet after a turbulent few months, with van insurance quotes up a massive 37.7% in May, compared to April of this year. 

This is good news – a buoyant van industry means more work for us all. But what this also means is that these people renewing or getting new van insurance now are going to be saving more than those whose policies run out at the end of the year. 

It’s worth calling your van insurance company to see if there are any savings they can offer. If your policy doesn’t have long to run, you may save money by renewing sooner (remember, about 3 weeks before it expires is usually the best time to save money). But if you don’t ask, you don’t get and with all this extra money kicking about at insurance companies, while the rest of us are scraping together a living, it won’t hurt to ask.

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